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Sunday, July 21st is children’s day at CICC; a day we set apart to get our children to take over most of the Service. This is our own way of corporately doing what the Bible calls “train up your child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it” (Proverbs 22:6). You can also call it our attempt at “passing the baton”. A Church that does not get the children and the youth involved in their services ultimately runs the risk of becoming extinct. This is more so in this present world where the Church is competing with a lot of other things for our children’s hearts and time. It is therefore very important for us to take affirmative or intentional steps in making sure that our children are introduced early to our faith so that they can grow in it.
When our time passes by, the success we made of it will only be judged by the preparations we made for sustainment. While it is important for leaders to disciple other leaders, who can succeed them and also maintain their legacy, it is even more important to make sure that the baton is correctly transferred to the generation coming behind. As I always say, children are very good passive learners. Passive in the sense that when you are actively teaching them, they hear what you say but they do not necessarily follow what you say. On the other hand, what you do when it is not your intention to teach them is what they catch very quickly and imitate. This is what I call passive learning. Values, especially, are caught and not taught. So, we must make intentional efforts at making sure that the values we display to our kids are the ones we want them to catch.
In the letter Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians, he encourages them to be “imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:1-2). Paul is teaching us all how to live with this statement. It is reminding us that as we look to imitate our Father in heaven, so also our children are looking to imitate us. Being aware of this, we must choose to live in a way that shows a good example to our children. This imitation thing has a bad side. It is one thing for the children to imitate what they see us do in Church, like they are doing today. It is another thing, if they choose to imitate both our Church and our out of Church attitudes. Children learn how to act by seeing how we act. So, if they see us live our lives as loving Christians, the tendency is for them to grow up and become loving Christians. If they see us as hypocritical Christians, there is a high probability that they will become the same. They will come to Church and put up a show just like we do, and when they get out of Church they will become monsters.
My favorite Bible passage about children is Psalm 127. Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain (Psalms 127:1). We need the help of God to raise our children the right way. We cannot do it by ourselves. So, we must make sure that we always reach out to God for help as our efforts alone are not enough. The same Psalm 127 goes on to say in verses 3-4 that “Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth”. One only needs to ask an archer, people who participate in the sport of shooting arrows, and we will find out how much time is spent in taking care of their arrows. Only an arrow that has been well designed and well taken care off will hit its target. Our children are like that. The process of training them in the way they should go is the same as making sure the arrows are well polished, straightened, and ready to go. When they are released, they will stay on their path and surely hit their intended targets. When, our children are properly prepared, when they are released, they will stay on their path and they will also hit their intended target. Malachi 2:15 tells us that God seeks “Godly offspring” from us. How do we make sure that our offspring are raised in a Godly way? We must seek God’s help, and we must train them the way they ought to go. Training them the way to go also depends on how we live our lives. We must live a Godly life for us to raise Godly offspring. Therefore, when we talk about passing the baton, that baton we talk about is the Godly life. So, as much as we can, let us model a Godly life for our offspring and when they grow up, they will not depart from it. – Pastor Simbo Odunaiya
ey can grow in it.
When our time passes by, the success we made of it will only be judged by the preparations we made for sustainment. While it is important for leaders to disciple other leaders, who can succeed them and also maintain their legacy, it is even more important to make sure that the baton is correctly transferred to the generation coming behind. As I always say, children are very good passive learners. Passive in the sense that when you are actively teaching them, they hear what you say but they do not necessarily follow what you say. On the other hand, what you do when it is not your intention to teach them is what they catch very quickly and imitate. This is what I call passive learning. Values, especially, are caught and not taught. So, we must make intentional efforts at making sure that the values we display to our kids are the ones we want them to catch.
In the letter Apostle Paul wrote to the Ephesians, He encourages them to be “imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.” (Ephesians 5:1-2). Paul is teaching us all how to live with this statement. It is reminding us that as we look to imitate our father in heaven, so also our children are looking to imitate us. Being aware of this, we must choose to live in a way that shows a good example to our children. This imitation thing has a bad side. It is one thing for the children to imitate what they see us do in Church, like they are doing today. It is another thing, if they choose to imitate both our church and our out of church attitudes. Children learn how to act by seeing how we act. So, if they see us live our lives as loving Christians, the tendency is for them to grow up and become loving Christians. If they see us as hypocritical Christians, there is a high probability that they will become the same. They will come to church and put up a show just like we do, and when they get out of church they will become monsters.
My favorite bible passage about children is psalm 127. Unless the Lord builds the house, the builders labor in vain (Psalms 127:1). We need the help of God to raise our children the right way. We cannot do it by ourselves. So, we must make sure that we always reach out to God for help as our efforts alone are not enough. The same Psalm 127 goes on to say in verses 3-4 that “Children are a heritage from the Lord, offspring a reward from him. Like arrows in the hands of a warrior are children born in one’s youth”. One only needs to ask an archer, people who participate in the sport of shooting arrows, and we will find out how much time is spent in taking care of their arrows. Only an arrow that has been well designed and well taken care off will hit its target. Our children are like that. The process of training them in the way they should go is the same as making sure the arrows are well polished, straightened, and ready to go. When they are released, they will stay on their path and surely hit their intended targets. When, our children are properly prepared, when they are released, they will stay on their path and they will also hit their intended target. Malachi 2:15 tells us that God seeks “Godly offspring” from us. How do we make sure that our offspring are raised in a Godly way? We must seek God’s help, and we must train them the way they ought to go. Training them the way to go also depends on how we live our lives. We must live a Godly life for us to raise Godly offspring. Therefore, when we talk about passing the baton, that baton we talk about is the Godly life. So, as much as we can, let us model a Godly life for our offspring and when they grow up they will not depart from it.
– Pastor Simbo Odunaiya
